Abstract
Some 200 works by 40 Portuguese female artists from the early 20th century to today. The iconic self-portrait by Aurélia da Sousa, painted in 1900, is the starting point for reflection on the creative context which for centuries was almost exclusively male. The exhibition follows a number of paths that reveal a desire for affirmation on the part of the artists in the face of the dominant consecration systems: the gaze, the body (their own body, the bodies of others, the political body), the space and how they occupy it (the home, nature, the studio), the way in which disciplinary boundaries are crossed (painting and sculpture, but also video, performance, audio) or the determination with which they advance towards the utopia of a transformative construct, both of themselves and their surroundings.
The show’s title, “All that I Want — Portuguese female artists from 1900 to 2020”, takes its inspiration from Lou Andreas-Salomé, a writer who produced one of the most noteworthy reflections on the place of women in the social, intellectual, sexual and love-related space in recent centuries; it places the selected artists in a spirit of subtlety, affirmation and power. Against all obstacles, these artists of various generations and different sensibilities conquered their own space, through the quality of their ideas. Celebrating that conquest means resisting the illustrative approach that a generic (female artists) and national (Portuguese) representation would suggest. But it also requires that one not forget that, in the midst of the 21st century, nothing has been secured as far as gender equality is concerned, and that these works are moments from a long collective struggle for the right to full existence as an artist.